Letter from DC: Ascending Honor vs Descending Honor

Washington's political class paralyzed by self-interest and partisanship.

Even the most generous observer of Washington
has to conclude that the nation’s politicians are failing its populace, driven
by partisan gamesmanship and isolated by a complete lack of understanding of
the mood enveloping not only the U.S.,
but much of the international community as well.

Americans, Greeks, Italians,
Germans, the French, and the British are all losing faith as they contemplate
the failure of their financial, political, and cultural institutions. People are taking to the streets around the
world not so much with a direct agenda of grievances, but to express their frustration
and disappointment in systems that have not met their self-professed expectations.

One need not look further than last
week’s spontaneous gathering in Happy Valley, PA
prompted by Joe Paterno’s firing as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions
in the wake of a child molestation scandal to encapsulate the people’s
malaise.

“The mood was not so much
pro-JoePa or anti-JoePa,” observed a Penn
State grad who has packed away his
sweatshirt and does not want to be identified because he is exhausted by the
scandal. “It was more, if you can’t believe
in JoePa, what can you believe in? It
just symbolizes to me what is going on in this country. Who can we trust? What can we truly believe in? As Marvin Gay sang, ‘What’s going on?’.”

In Athens,
more than 30,000 people demonstrated their mistrust. You see the same in Milan
and Palermo in Italy, university students in London protesting a tripling of
tuition in the UK, and of course, the escalating confrontation with the Occupy
movements in Oakland, New York, and Denver.

What you see is the anger of what
they consider a violation of their social contract by their government and
their financial institutions.

Simple-minded folks rationalize
the protesters as lazy and disgruntled, unwilling to put in the effort and hard
work required to succeed in a system that rewards those who take advantage of
the opportunities provided. Problem is,
those opportunities are declining and the premise of the U.S.
as a meritocracy is becoming more and more dubious.

Last month, the Congressional
Budget Office confirmed much of the Occupy movement’s primary gripe: income
inequality. The non-partisan CBO found
that the top 1% of households saw their income grow by 275% between 1979 and
2007. The next 19% saw a 65% increase, a
39% increase for the next 40% and only an 18% increase for the bottom 20%.

Education, supposedly the great
equalizer, has become so expensive and debt-intensive, there are very
legitimate questions as to whether the investment in a college education is
worth the return. Student loan balances
now rival mortgages.

Americans now collectively owe
more than $600 billion in student loans, while wages for college graduates have
actually fallen over the last ten years. The expectation was that a college education would fuel social and
economic advancement, not put you in a financial hole to dig out of day one
after graduation and then rely on a tilted society to fund your recovery.

The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik may have put his finger on the fundamental
grievance of the Occupy movement: that the nation has transitioned back from
the “New World’s ‘ascending honor,’ in which children strive to impress their
parents by moving up in society on their own” to the “Old World’s ‘descending
honor,’ in which people pass on their goods and status to their children.”

In other words, political and
financial elites are perpetuating a caste system that protects and grows their
gains within their clique — by intent or not — and restricts entrance into
their prosperous world. The national
mantra of equal opportunity is under serious review.

Unfortunately, Washington
continues to remain completely unaware of this growing sensibility, seeking instead to
lay sole responsibility for the current state of affairs on those suffering
from them. The so-called
“Supercommittee” commissioned by the debt-ceiling extension deal is supposed to
have its deficit reduction plan in order just before Thanksgiving.

If unable to reach a deal, poison
pills kick in that would demand across the board cuts in military spending and
social programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The cuts were supposed to be so devastating
to the agendas of both political parties that they would be forced to reach a compromise.

But they gave themselves on out.
The cuts do not kick in until after the 2012 elections; then whatever party is in
power could repeal the cuts that are an anathema to their core. Thus, you’ve got stalling over “revenue” — or
tax increases for the wealthiest. No hurry, we’ll win the election and do what
we want.

Rather than explore a far-reaching
agreement that restores an “ascending honor” to American society, our national
leaders are consumed by election year politics and partisanship gain. And the people see it; why else would
Congress’s approval rating be under 20%? (On the other hand, why should Congress
worry? They enjoy 85% incumbency rates.)

The coming days will illuminate
whether our leaders are thinking macro- or micro-, whether they favor
“ascending honor” or “descending honor,” and whether they seek a solution for
shared prosperity or to prepare for class warfare.

The "system" is clearly
broken. Will it be fixed? Or, at the risk of escalating social unrest,
its failings rationalized by those whom receive its primary benefits?

Marc Osgoode Smith has covered – and participated in - Washington DC policy circles for more than two decades as a journalist covering media and as an association and think tank executive. Smith now enjoys his role as a “cultural observer” of DC Politics and the people that engage in them.